Performing the glitch

The Pomeg glitch involves using a Pomeg Berry on a Pokémon whose current HP is very low. The Pomeg Berry lowers the HP EVs of a Pokémon to 100 (or lowers them by 10 if the Pokémon already has 100 EVs or below). Since every 4 EVs is equivalent to 1 HP (at level 100), the Pokémon's HP will decrease with each Pomeg Berry used, as long as the Pokémon has 4 or more EVs in HP. In this way, it is possible to lower the Pokémon's current HP to 0 (without causing it to faint) or a negative number.

For example, if a Pokémon with 8 HP EVs currently has 1 HP out of a maximum of 100, using a Pomeg Berry will decrease the EVs to 0. As a result, the Pokémon should lose 2 HP and have a current HP of -1 and a maximum of 98. However, due to the unsigned manner in which this data is stored, the game interprets a negative number as a very high number; therefore, if a Pokémon's current HP drops to -1, it will be interpreted as 65,535 and be displayed as "?35".

In Generation IV, the glitch was partially corrected so that a Pomeg Berry could not glitch a Pokémon with 3 or fewer HP (a Pomeg Berry will usually decrease a Pokémon's HP by 2). However, the glitch still exists but must be performed on a Pokémon with greater than 4 current HP and 116 or more HP EVs. When a Pomeg Berry is consumed with more than 100 EVs, it resets the EVs to 100. With an EV total of 116, the Pokémon would lose at least 4 HP to reach 0 current HP.

In Generation V EV Berries always decrease EVs by 10, and will no longer decrease EVs by more than 10 if the Pokémon has over 100 EVs, making the Pomeg glitch unusable.

Sub-glitches

Several other glitches derive from the Pomeg glitch, such as the ability to battle with an Egg, battling with no Pokémon at all, or battling for an unlimited amount of times. These sub-glitches cannot be performed in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.

In Generation III

Battling with no Pokémon

If there is only one Pokémon in the player's party when affected by this glitch, and goes into faint status using a healing item, the player will not white out. This is because the game does not check for this on the field. If the player walks into tall grass and encounters a wild Pokémon or starts a battle in any other way, the Pokémon will be sent out with 0 HP, the Shiny animation will not play, and will faint at the beginning of the battle if it is commanded to attack the opponent, causing the normal whiteout scenario. If on the first turn an item is used to revive the Pokémon the battle will continue as normal.

Battling with an Egg

If the player has only an Egg in his or her party with the Pokémon affected, the Egg (or rather, the Pokémon that would be inside) can be forced into battle by following the same steps, but putting the Egg at the head of the party. The Egg will have the same stats it would have upon hatching, as well as all of the moves. This allows it to battle as if it were a normal Pokémon. When battling with an Egg, the sprite of the Pokémon within the Egg is displayed; however, there may be irregularity in the coloring of the Pokémon. This may be because the game is reading the backsprite of the Pokémon within the Egg and the color palette of the Egg itself.

An Egg that battles can gain experience in this way, and with patience, level up, learn moves, and even evolve before hatching. However when it hatches the level is set to 5, EVs reset to zero and all EXP gained in the Egg is removed. This allows level 5 versions of high-evolutionary Pokémon such as Tyranitar or Dragonite to be obtainable, it also allows otherwise illegal moveset/level combinations, such as a level 5 Staryu with Hydro Pump.

Infinite battle

If the Pokémon that has been affected is sent out with 65,535 HP against an opponent that uses an HP-stealing move like Absorb, the Pokémon's HP will be stolen until it reaches the normal maximum amount, nearly 65,000 HP lower than the glitched amount for a Pokémon with the absolute maximum HP. If a second HP-stealing move is used, the Pokémon will lose its full HP, go down to 0, and then repeat from the top again.

This sub-glitch changes a Pokémon's sprite depending on the moves the affected Pokémon performs or is attacked with.

After performing the Pomeg glitch, the player must enter a battle using a Pokémon currently affected by the glitch against another that knows one of the correct moves. The second step is letting a turn pass either by use of the Oran Berry on the glitched Pokémon, moves with little or no damage to the foe, or wait for it to use the effective move twice, unless the player's Pokémon has been damaged before. If this were to happen, it will only require being hit once by the effective move.

Egg trade evolution glitch

This video is not available on Bulbapedia; instead, you can watch the video on YouTube here.

Access Pokémon beyond slot 6

This sub-glitch allows the player to access Pokémon beyond slot 6

To do this, the player has to have at least 3 Pokémon in their party, one to four fainted, one normal, and one affected by the Pomeg glitch

The player should enter a wild battle with their Pomeg glitched Pokémon, swap to their normal Pokémon, and then run. After doing this, the normal Pokémon should be deposited into a PC at a Pokémon Center, and then a Potion should be used on the Pomeg-affected Pokémon to get it's HP at 0. Once done, entering any battle will cause the player to send out ??????????, and viewing its Pokémon screen, looking at any of its stats, exiting the stat screen, and then scrolling down allows the player access Pokémon beyond the 6th slot.

This glitch can be performed if the last conscious non-Egg Pokémon in the player's party is a Pokémon whose level is above 40 but less than 100 with a high amount of HPEVs, whose remaining HP is the same as below.

Remaining HP = (HP lost through use of a Pomeg Berry) - (HP gained through use of a Rare Candy after using a Pomeg Berry)

Then a Pomeg Berry must be used, which makes the Pokémon's HP roll over to a very high number. Then a Rare Candy must be used to level up the Pokémon, causing it to faint. The player does not black out.

At the Seven Stars Restaurant, the player can perform the glitch in a Double Battle. Once the battle starts, the player will send out two -----. Due to being unable to target -----, opponents will target their ally.

This can be performed with one or more Pokémon, as long as all of them are fainted or Eggs. If performed with more than one Pokémon, the second Pokémon will appear in the first slot on the party screen, the third in the second, etc.

During the battle, if the game checks to see if either player has no Pokémon left (whenever a Pokémon takes damage and at the end of each round), the player will automatically black out if the only Pokémon they have are -----. If performed the glitch with a fainted Pokémon in the second party slot or further and a Revive or Revival Herb is used to revive it mid-battle, the player will not lose; however, at the end of the round the player will be forced to switch it in. If this happens in a Double Battle under this glitch, the Pokémon will replace the left -----; the right -----'s sprite will remain, but its turn will always be skipped.